How Tom Wood Auto Group is Driving 17 Franchise Stores Towards Success | GM and Other Automakers Bracing for Tariff Consequences | Tesla Marks Manufacturing Milestone
How Tom Wood Auto Group is Driving 17 Franchise Stores Towards Success: Brian Finkelmeyer, Director of Conquest at vAuto, is joined by Chad Kirchhoff, Director of Operations with Tom Wood Auto Group. They discuss a variety of industry trends including new and used vehicle sales, sales growth and how Chad and group a driving success throughout all seventeen of their dealer franchises.
Automakers Bracing for Potentially ‘Devastating’ Tariff Consequences
In addition to Daimler AG, other automobile makers have now spoken out against President Donald Trump’s proposed tariffs. A Bloomberg article published on July 1, 2018 reported that BMW, Ford, and Tesla are additional automakers who may find the tariffs to be devastating. Wang Rongzhen, an executive of Yan’an Jinchi Feike Auto Sales and Service Co. in China, used the term “nightmare” when discussing the tariffs. The gains global automakers got this past week from lower import tariffs were more than welcome, but the trade war might change all of that once Trump’s retaliatory 25 percent levy kicks in on Friday.
Lacking of Transparency is Selling Bottleneck
Both the U.S. Senate and the House recently approved a resolution to repeal the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB) dealer participation guidance (at this writing, all that remains to rescind the guidance is President Trump’s signature). It’s clearly good news for auto dealers who count dealer markups as an important profit center.
Are Buyers Liars? Ask Questions That Get Honest Answers
As long as I have been in the car business, I’ve heard salespeople and managers jokingly use the cliché “Buyers are liars.” When I ask them when they believe buyers are liars, they all respond with the same answer, “When their lips are moving.” I am not sure which concerns me more, the idea that a customer would lie or that we, as an industry, have not addressed this issue sooner.